Book Reviews for two Old Hobby Friends

Discover the best book reviews for two old hobby friends! Find the perfect books to share with your friends, no matter what your hobbies are.

Words of Warning: With a story or two tossed in, this article is a plug for a couple of old hobby friends who have both written books which released this fall. If you don't want to read the plug, we will come back next month with a different take on things.

Leading off the two books is one penned by Mike Cramer who has such a long hobby history he was there before the first boom of the late 1970's and stayed involved for another quarter of a century past the original boom.

The Best Book Reviews for Two Old Hobby Friends

I just want to add a couple of things to say. First, Mike was way ahead of him time in that by his offices there was a small storefront where you could come in and purchase cards. All these years later. I realize that having a storefront was the best possible focus group for collectors as you could find out in real time what a sample size of collectors would or would not purchase.

In those days we all thought that was a potential conflict of interest, with the perfect hindsight I now realize just how far ahead of his time Mike and his Pacific team was in creating a way to sell cards we would consider normal today. Example: Fanatics using about 1/2 their Lids stores to sell Topps boxes. Mike and his team did that 30 years ago and today we all accept this as normal.

The second story is truly a fun one. The first time I ever went to the Seattle area for a card show/show and visit Pacific trip was in 1992. I stayed at a brand new hotel called the Redmond Inn which was fairly centrally located to everything I wanted to accomplish. Would you believe when I went to the COMC headquarters for my training the hotel I stayed at was...

The same Redmond Inn. Amazing that nearly a quarter of a century later, I could still remember some of the places near the hotel and it felt like home to some extent. On that same trip in 1992, i also screwed up and forgot to check in for my plane trip until the flight was about ready to leave. The only seat they had for me was in first class and yes spending a four hour trip in first class is sure the way to go.

Mike is very interested in promoting his book and if you have interest in chatting with him let me know and I'll see what I can do to ensure he is a guest on your web/pod cast.

The second book which has recently been published is by old hobby friend Nick Redwine who owned Nick's cards in Dallas for nearly three decades before settling down into a quasi-retirement. Personally, I'm so glad he put these stories down on paper and this was triggered by one of his grandchildren shaming him into do this. Nick and his wife Debbe are two of my favorite people in the hobby and I'm glad some of their stories will live on for a long time

Nick's and Cindy's: A DFW Icon and a Jewish Deli

Some of my former Beckett teammates have commented that you can hear Nick's voice telling those stories which are now saved for a long long time.

His store was part of a code my wife used. When she ordered either Challah, Chopped Liver or even Matzoh Ball Soup from Cindy's deli. Cindy's is a long-standing small chain of Jewish-style delis here in the DFW area and it's been owned for more than 20 years by a Vietnamese family.

Many of the workers are Mexican and a few are still left over from when the "new" ownership took over. The most amazing thing is most of the people who work there are the same people who were there in 1999. Just as with Nicks, there is a great amount of stability in walking into Cindy's

The code was, if I heard this question: "Rich do you want to go to Nick's?". The answer was always yes and tell me what I'm picking up at Cindy's. Those trips were truly a win-win.

So, I heartily recommend both books which are now available and you'll thank me later